


Should Have Known Better

by partyclowns



Category: Spider-Man (Movies - Raimi)
Genre: Bisexual Peter Parker, Canon Rewrite, Canonical Character Death, Love Confessions, M/M, spider-man three won't happen now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:07:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28698165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partyclowns/pseuds/partyclowns
Relationships: Harry Osborn/Peter Parker
Kudos: 23





	Should Have Known Better

Losing his father changed Harry more than he would ever admit. He began to _hate_ , and he became obsessed with making his father proud. He wanted to do what he never could while Norman Osborn was alive. He wanted to keep Oscorp alive. None of these wants were as strong as his want—no, his need— to end Spider-man.

Peter was wracked with guilt. He was the reason Uncle Ben was murdered, and he was the one who killed Norman. He killed the only men that truly believed in him, and if the truth ever came out, he would lose Harry too. 

It took far too long for Peter to realize the reality of his situation. He had spent years fawning over Mary Jane, and he still loved her, but not in the way she now wanted him to love her. She was an angel, beautiful, and so sweet. She deserved more than what Peter could give her. But meeting Harry changed him for the better, and it only took Harry’s relationship with M.J. for Peter to realize his jealousy was not directed towards the right person.

He was jealous of Mary Jane. He yearned to be her as Harry kissed her, as he brought her flowers and held her hand—he wanted nothing more than to belong to Harry.

That only made the truth hurt more. 

When Harry introduced him to Dr. Otto Octavius it got worse. He was giving him a great opportunity, even despite Peter’s distance, and that made Peter love him even more. It made Peter hate himself more. He could barely look in the mirror, or into Harry or Aunt May’s eyes, and when he saw Mary Jane he felt his heart crumble. He spent too much of his time fixing things as Spider-man he had forgotten what it was like to be Peter.

After saving Harry from Doctor Octavius’ experiment going wrong and watching exactly what he predicted would go wrong, go wrong, he began to lose himself. He nearly lost Aunt May, there. His powers were becoming dysfunctional and he was falling apart. After watching Mary Jane begin to live her life somewhat normally, he had a meltdown. He wanted to have a normal life too, and it wasn’t fair that a freak accident on a school field trip changed him. 

He threw the costume into the garbage, and vowed never to be Spider-Man again. He would live his life normally, and would confess his wrongdoings to those he loved in hopes of becoming a better man. He longed to be Peter Parker again, and only Peter Parker. He was sick of his chest feeling heavy and the guilt tearing him apart. 

“Harry, I’m Spider-man.” he stood in front of the mirror, practicing his confession. “Harry, I’m Spider-man—no, don’t speak. I wanted to tell you because I _love_ you. I am in love with you, and I never meant for it to be like—God, it’s useless.”

His first confession was to Aunt May. She looked at him with sadness in her eyes and left the room. She already had so much to worry about, the upcoming foreclosure and age—he felt awful, but that was one less thing he had on his mind. He had no time to fear the worst about Aunt May, because now he needed to tell Harry the truth.

“Peter, what do you want? You finally gonna tell me who your little friend Spidey is?” Harry opened the door with a grunt. He held a glass of scotch in his hand, though Peter had caught him before he got drunk. He was almost always drunk these days, stressed over the fact that because of Doctor Octopus he could very well lose Oscorp. He would be disappointing his father again.

“No—well, can I come in?” Harry let him in. 

“Ignore the mess.” he sighed and plopped onto the sofa. He looked tired, exhausted, and of course he had every reason to be.

“Harry, I messed up. I let a girl get in the way of things, and then things kept piling up—I wasn’t a good friend to you. You were there for me when Uncle Ben died, and I should’ve been there for you when… you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” he took a swig of his drink and cocked a brow. “Is that all?”

“No.” Peter’s heart was pounding, and he was trembling. He hadn’t even felt this nervous over Mary Jane. “I’m—”

Before the words could leave his mouth, there was a loud crash and there stood Doctor Octavius in all his glory. “I need more tritium, Harry.” he demanded, the arms grabbing the young man by his shirt . 

“You’ll destroy the city!”

“I’m willing to risk it.” he snapped.

“Only if you get Peter here to tell me who Spider-man is.” Harry bargained, fearing for his life. “But please, don’t hurt him. I only want Spider-man.”

“You heard him, Parker.” another arm grabbed Peter by his throat. 

“That’s what I came here for, Harry.” he didn’t care, not anymore. He was willing to lay down his life for Harry, especially if it meant the possibility of forgiveness. “It’s me, Harry. It’s me. I’m Spider-man. I didn’t mean to kill him, but he left me no other choice. He nearly killed Mary Jane, he was terrorizing the city, and I know you didn’t realize it, but it’s true.”

Harry froze. He couldn’t believe it was true—he didn’t want to believe it, but his mind raced and the memories that hit him only made it harder to _not_ believe it. When Peter was late for work for seemingly no reason, when his father became irrationally angry all the time, when he hugged Peter at his father’s funeral and Peter froze. His eyes welled up with tears and when Octavius dropped him to give Peter— _Spider-man—_ his full attention he sat on the floor in shock.

His state of shock was only interrupted by Peter’s cries of pain. He was trapped in Doc Ock’s grasp, being thrown around like a rag-doll. “Peter!” Harry couldn’t help but yell. No matter how angry he felt he didn’t want to lose Peter like this. 

“Give me the tritium now!” 

“Let him go!”

“Not until you give me what I came here for. I did what you wanted, Osborn!” 

“No.” 

He was so furious with Harry he dragged them all towards his reactor, forgetting about the tritium. It glowed bright yellow and orange, giving off a strong heat that could only be compared to that of the sun. That is exactly what Octavius wanted, and all of this power got into his head he had forgotten his wife, and Peter knew this. “Otto, what about Rosalie?” he spoke softly, finally catching the man’s attention. “How would she feel about this?”

“She’s dead because of it. Because of me.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t fix it. All you have to do is forget about the reactor and take back control.” he could tell his encouraging words worked because the doctor lowered him and Harry and looked at the arms.

“You belong to me!”he yelled. “You two leave. I will drown it, even if it means I die. I _won’t_ die a villain.”

“I’ll tell everyone about your sacrifice, Octavius.” Harry stumbled through his words, but he was tired of cowering. Before he could say anything else Peter held him tightly and they were flying through the air, or well swinging. And Harry’s hatred disappeared, but it was replaced by a strange sadness. An emptiness. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I couldn’t tell anyone. I could barely admit it to myself.” 

“I wouldn’t have said those things…”

“You had, and still have, every reason to be angry. To hate me, Harry. I came to tell you tonight because I wanted to give up Spider-man and I wanted you to know the truth, even if you hated me. I also wanted to tell you the truth about Mary Jane and me and you.”

“What truth?” 

“I wasn’t jealous of you.” Peter looked into his best friend’s eyes. It was his turn for tears now. “I wanted to tell you that I love you. I love you like I loved Mary Jane, but more than I loved her. Like I can’t bear to hurt you anymore, even if you don’t know it’s me. Like if I had to live without you it had to be my choice, because otherwise, what is the damn point?”

Peter dropped them down into an alleyway where he half expected Harry to punch him in the face or run off, but instead he took Peter’s face into his hands and kissed him. The taste of scotch was overwhelming, but no more overwhelming than the fact that the man he was deeply in love with was kissing him, even after knowledge of the betrayal. This kiss was far more passionate than any kiss Peter had ever had, full of anger and love and regret. Harry pulled away, resting his forehead on his best friend’s, and sighed: “Peter, you’re an idiot and I love you. I love you, and I forgive you. For everything.”

“You what?” 

“Listen to me, okay? I was wrong about you, and especially about Spider-man. I know you. You wouldn’t do anything like this if it wasn’t necessary and hell, you didn’t mean for it to be this way.” he shook Peter’s head, his eyes full of tears. “I’m sorry about everything.”  
  


“Don’t be. Nothing’s changed.” he kissed him again, gently this time and only for a moment. 

Peter took him back to his apartment to get some sleep. There, Harry could shower and wouldn't be exposed to the elements. He fell asleep with his head in his best friend’s lap, at least that’s what they still were until the inevitable ‘what are we?’ conversation. Until then Peter relished in the peace, stroking Harry’s dark curls until he finally felt safe enough to fall asleep himself. He only hoped that the peace would linger on until the morning.

The kisses he woke up to showed him that that was the case. When his eyes opened revealing Harry was still there, a gentle smile on his face, everything felt right. For the first time in years everything felt _okay._

And from that day on he vowed to balance Peter Parker and Spider-man out.


End file.
